Tamara Inoue and Jeff Cammon are each holding an end of a common string.

Inoue, the UC Irvine women’s basketball coach, took over the Anteater program in 2016-17, a program that had posted just three winning seasons in its previous 18 years. Under the one-time Long Beach State player, the Anteaters have had three winning seasons and reached the Big West Tournament title game last season.

Cammon, the Long Beach State women’s coach, was an assistant under Jody Wynn. In that same season (’16-17), Wynn and LBSU went 23-11, won the Big West tourney title and made their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1992.

As the saying goes at Long Beach, Wynn took everything except the Pyramid with her when Washington hired her away. Cammon inherited the job and finally, in his fifth season, has the program once again a viable title candidate.

UCI starts this week’s Big West Tournament as the No. 2 seed with a 19-10 record after a program-best 14-4 mark in conference play. Long Beach (19-7, 12-6) is the No. 3 seed, while Hawaii (17-9, 13-3) is the top seed. UC Riverside (13-10, 10-6) is seeded fourth.

The 10-team tournament begins with a pair of first-round games on Tuesday in Henderson, Nevada. Eighth-seeded Cal State Northridge (9-18, 5-12) faces ninth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield (4-19, 3-11) and No. 7 Cal State Fullerton (10-17, 5-12) meets No. 10 Cal Poly (3-21, 2-13). The quarterfinals are Wednesday, with the semifinals on Friday afternoon and the championship game on Saturday at 5 p.m.

“We’re excited about our chances and building on what we’ve already achieved,” Inoue said Monday. “After what we did last year, we’re all anxious for this chance.

“The difference we have this year is more depth. But we also know every game in this league is a dogfight. There weren’t a lot of games won by 20 points this season. It’s anybody’s game.”

The Anteaters come into the tournament having won 10 of their past 12 games. The nucleus of last season’s team wears the shield this season: first-team all-conference selection Kayla Williams (15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game) is the spark in the backcourt with Chloe Webb (10.5 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Sophia Locandro (7.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg) around the basket. The Anteaters also have one of the tallest teams in the conference.

Long Beach returns its stars from last season, Justina King (11.6 ppg) and Jasmine Hardy (10.6 ppg), but has received a huge boost from first-team all-conference selection Maddi Utti, a transfer from Fresno State who leads the teams in points (13.8), rebounds (8.8) and steals (89) and on Monday was named the Big West Defensive Player of the Year.

Long Beach dropped two of its last three games, showing some fatigue with a shorter bench than other teams.

“I think we’re rejuvenated,” Cammon said. “We missed a shot at winning a regular-season title, but we still have another gear.

“I remind the team all the time that they’re as talented as any team in the conference, and if we can compete at a high level for three games, it can carry us to the (NCAA) tournament.”

Hawaii is led by graduate student Amy Atwell (17.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg), who came back for a fifth season and earned Big West Player of the Year honors. The Rainbow Warriors also have two transfers from other colleges and have the deepest bench in the conference.

UCI will face the winner of the Fullerton-Cal Poly game, and Long Beach will open with No. 6 seed and defending Big West tourney champion UC Davis (14-12, 8-8).

The Titans were hampered by injuries early in the season but got great seasons from Big West Freshman of the Year Lily Wahinekapu (14.4 ppg) and transfer Fujika Nimmo (10.1) from Florida International.

UC Riverside faces fifth-seeded UC Santa Barbara (15-11, 9-8) in its quarterfinal. The Highlanders, who have won seven games in a row, are paced by first-team all-conference selection Keilanei Cooper (13.5 ppg) and Jada Holland (11.5 ppg).

BIG WEST WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

(all games at Dollar Loan Center, Henderson, Nev.)

Tuesday (first round)

No. 8 seed Cal State Northridge vs. No. 9 Cal State Bakersfield, noon

No. 7 seed Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 10 Cal Poly (SLO), 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday (quarterfinals)

No. 1 seed Hawaii vs. CSUN-CSUB winner, noon

No. 4 seed UC Riverside vs. No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, 2:30 p.m.

No. 2 seed UC Irvine vs. CSF-Cal Poly winner, 6 p.m.

No. 3 seed Long Beach State vs. No. 6 UC Davis, 8:30 p.m.

Friday (semifinals)

TBD vs. TBD, noon (early quarterfinal winners)

TBD vs. TBD, 2:30 p.m. (late quarterfinal winners)

Saturday (championship game)

TBD vs. TBD, 5 p.m. (ESPN+)